Current status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 16 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the microcredit programme is exclusively targeted at women and, if so, in what way and how the programme targets match the terms of the announcement made on International Women's Day on 8 March 2000.
The microcredit programme is not exclusively targeted at women as sex discrimination legislation generally prohibits restricting funding schemes in this way. It is expected, however, that the majority of recipients of microcredit will be women as proposed in the original announcement. Details of the programme are available through Small Business Gateway outlets.